About Omega Systems: Omega Systems aims to bring the sophistication and functionality of enterprise level solutions to small and medium-sized companies through managed services, with an emphasis on building positive and lasting relationships with customers. Offices are in Spring Township and King of Prussia.

In one of the most high-profile attempts at cyber-ransom, hackers in August swiped files from HBO and demanded millions of dollars for the return of "proprietary information" consisting of unaired episodes of popular shows and company data. Recently, government systems in North Carolina and California have become prey for hackers looking to cash in on computer systems with weak safeguards.

As owner of Omega Systems, West Lawn, it is the job of Bill Kiritsis to stay one step ahead of these types of cyberthreats. It is a career he was simply drawn to after figuring out he could combine his passion for computers and business to start a company out of his attic in 2002.

"I can't explain it to you, but I love computers," Kiritsis said. "I also love business as well because it is in my blood."

After realizing his initial focus in architecture did not hold his interest, he left Penn State and returned to his native Berks County. After receiving a degree from Berks Technical Institute, he went to work in the information technology industry. One day, he came home from his job working with large businesses' IT with an idea. He suggested he and his wife quit their jobs and create a business, focusing on small to medium-sized companies. Being a risk taker, the move felt natural to him. Jennifer Kiritsis was not so sure, but she was the first to go into the new endeavor full time. "I picked up the phone and started calling small businesses and asking for 15 minutes of their time," he said. "I was dialing for dollars."

Business Weekly: How did you start Omega Systems?

Bill Kiritsis: My wife and I started the business out of our attic. We decided, 'Hey, there's a need here, that businesses need IT help.' Computers came naturally to me, and I had a business sense, so I tied the two together. We benefited, and the customer benefited. That was our focus. If we do a great job and we see technology working for the customer, more will come. And they did.

BW: Where did that business sense come from?

BK: My parents were immigrants. They came from Greece. They had to have three or four jobs and they started businesses. They had multiple businesses that they ran; the last one was a small ice cream shop located on Route 222 called Sno-Kist. I worked there as a kid; I helped them grow the business and then I went to Penn State.

BW: How do customers benefit from your services?

BK: Let's take for example our backup and recovery services. You've heard of these new cryptowalls that lock your files up? We can restore a customer's environment very quickly, and the (business) does not have to pay the ransom. They are benefiting from us securing them, protecting them. We are making them move forward in functionality that they couldn't do previously. That is the technology that we bring to the table. We want our customers to not have to focus on IT. We want them to be able to focus on their business.

Most business professionals don't know much about IT. It's kind of like a black hole where they look for help and don't understand much. It's very new. In terms of the life cycle, IT has not been around for hundreds of years, so unlike the construction industry or food industry this is a fairly new area of business.

BW: What other services does Omega Systems offer?

BK: Security services, that's very big in our industry right now. Security is a rapidly growing business. For security, it's a multilayered approach now. We provide the monitoring services.

BW: What are some of the new threats businesses need to be aware of?

BK: There are so many. There are so many phishing scams nowadays, all you have to do is hover over some links in an email and you can become infected, believe it or not. It's getting that bad. They appeared in the last three or four months. We are proactive about it. That's what Omega is all about.

BW: Why is proactivity so important?

BK: You're going to be late to the game if you wait until your house falls down. You have to have maintenance. The biggest problem with companies is that they do not know how to utilize their IT. You want to leverage that. We develop our own process. We help companies with their IT challenges by helping them understand what IT can do for them.

BW: Why do companies not understand or utilize IT?

BK: IT right now is like the Wild West. But IT is not flashy. A lot of people avoid IT in terms of their business. They just don't want to be bothered with it.

BW: What is Omega Systems' customer footprint?

BK: We serve from the Altoona/Penn State area to the New Jersey border, the southeast of Pennsylvania. We want to grow in the region, so we are looking to expand in the D.C. (and) upstate New York area. We are looking to acquire companies now and bring them under the Omega culture. We are looking at several acquisitions in the next 18 months.

BW: Have you noticed an increase in demand for your service from a specific business sector?

BK: The financial sector is really exploding right now because of regulatory compliance. That's really exploded in the last 12 to 18 months. They really need to be secure, and we have solutions we have developed over the last four years for that sector.

FYI: Bill Kiritsis

Personal: Born in St. Joseph Hospital and grew up in Berks County. Married to Jennifer. Three children: Nik, Eli and Sophia Kiritsis.

About Omega Systems: Omega Systems aims to bring the sophistication and functionality of enterprise level solutions to small and medium-sized companies through managed services, with an emphasis on building positive and lasting relationships with customers. Offices are in Spring Township and King of Prussia.